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THE PROHIBITION TIGHT
Compiled by J. L. D. Hillyer
I am indebted to Dr. R. E. Stallings, state chem
ist, for a recent bulletin on the workings and dis
closures of the Pure Food Laws. I shall have occa
sion to use material from that source every now
and then, but just at this time a matter of much
importance comes to us from Dr. Stallings in the
shape of some instructions about the preserving
of grape juice without fermentation.
There are some extensive and valuable vineyards
in Georgia and other Southern States. There is
no necessity whatever for any loss to their owners
by reason of the prohibition law.
The Atlanta Journal of Sunday, June 14, con
tained an article from Dr. Stallings which sets
forth minutely the process of preserving grape juice.
It is impossible to give all of Dr. Stallings’ instruc
tions here and quite likely to most of the readers
of this paper much of what he says is already fa
miliar.
You know how to get the juice out of raw grapes,
apples and other fruits? Well, just do that exact
ly as if you intended to make wine, but the pro
hibition law says you must not make wine. In
order to avoid breaking the law, you must kill the
ferment germs that cover the ripe grape stems and
twigs. You might do that by the use of chem
icals, but that would not give you pure grape juice.
You must kill the germs by heat. The bulletin
says:
“Practical tests so far made indicate that grape
juice can be safely sterilized at from 165 to 176
F. At this temperature the flavor is hardly changed
while with a temperature above 200 degrees F.
it is. This is an important point as the flavor.and
quality of the product depend upon it.” The la
dies who put up fruit in jars will understand the
processes, how to clarify the juice, how to strain
it, or let it settle and rack it off, or how to let it
go along without being made clear, as most of the
grape juice on the market is. They also know how
to prepare their jars and bottles so as to sterilize
them. The only caution about grape juice is that
it should be brought to a heat of not less than 170
F. and not more than 195. It should be heated in
double boilers or in jars set in hot water. It
should not come in contact with the walls of the
kettle that sits on the fire. That would scorch
it. There is also given by Dr. Stallings a method
for preserving the juice in barrels. The official bul
letin will describe that. Dr. Stallings closes his
very instructive Journal article with the following
statement:
“There are two bulletins issued by the United
States department of agriculture, one of which is
farmers’ bulletin 175, from which the above is
taken; the other bulletin, No. 24, bureau of plant
industry, department of agriculture, Washington,
D. C., and those interested may apply for the same,
getting full information.
“Uses of Unfermented Juice.
“The uses are indeed many. It is used in sick
ness, convalescence, and good health; as a preven
tive and as a restorative. It is used in churches
for sacramental purposes; in soda fountains as a
cool and refreshing drink; in homes, at hotels and
restaurants as a food; as a beverage; as a dessert
and in many other ways. When properly prepared,
unfermented grape juice can be made to please the
eye by its color and attractive appearance, please
the sense of smell by its aroma of fragrance, please
the palate by its pleasant flavor. It is food and
drink, refreshment and nourishment all in one.”
There have been a great many complaints about
near beer in Atlanta. It has been said many times
that the court of appeals had decided that near beer
is not intoxicating. Judge Broyles and Chief Jen
nings have both been quoted in the papers as giv
ing that reason for the inability of the police to
suppress those blind tigers that were disguised as
a near beer saloon. The appellate court has, how
ever, been slandered. It has not ruled in favor
of near beer, but squarely agaipst & They said in
The Golden Age for August 20, 1908.
Roberts’ case that the prohibition bill did not fix
the percentum of alcohol that near beer might have
in it before it would be prohibited by the law. But
that question was to be determined by the intoxicat
ing effects. If anyone drinking it excessively be
comes intoxicated, the one selling it violated the law
when he sold it. That is exactly what is said in
the statute. Yet it has been a notorious fact for
weeks that men have been getting drunk on near
beer and on near beer sold in Atlanta openly. Yet
the police have declared that they had no law to
stop it. Now the papers give the following from
Chief Jennings, which renews our hopes:
“ ‘There has been complaint of a good deal of
drunkenness in the city of late. Many people say
near beer is the cause of their intoxication. If
we can get such people to swear that near beer made
them drunk, we will prosecute such, dealers in ac
cordance with the provisions of the prohibition
law. ’
“Chief Jennings instructed Assistant Chief Jett
to be on the sharp lookout for evidence that might
lead to the conviction of offending dealers. Chief
Jennings also issued a special order to the police
force generally touching the situation. He said the
police would carry out the prohibition law as strict
ly as any other.
“Chief Jennings states that an example will be
made of the first dealer who can be convicted of
selling beer containing an excess of alcohol.”
*
We give below a pitiable story about Savannah.
If it be true, every honest man and respectable
woman in Georgia outside of Savannah, ought to
hide the face in shame at the mere mention of the
possibility that the chosen officers of Chatham
county, who have been sworn to obey and enforce
the laws of the State, should deliberately contrive
to turn the prohibition law into a device to license
and protect blind tigers. It is hoped, for the sake
of common decency, that the story is untrue. But
here it is. Let those who know, deny it, if they
can:
“Savannah, Ga., August 4. — (Special.)—Over one
hundred blind tigers in Savannah were raided under
the city’s new plan today, the absence of warrants
of any kind, or even of uniformed officers, marking
the raids as unusual. In each case a detective, or
plain clothes man, appeared in the suspected place,
told the proprietor, ‘See the chief at 3,’ and then
disappeared.
“A bond for SIOO in each case was waiting for
the proprietor at the police station. The cases will
be called Thursday, no defendants will appear, the
bonds will be forfeited and the city will receive
SIO,OOO. This, it is planned, will occur annually.
Because of the raids fifty new near beer licenses at
S2OO each were issued today.”
The Mission Girl.
(Continued from Page 2.)
“At least, Bess, he has the courage of his con
victions,” she affirmed at last. But it was quite
evident to the younger woman that her favorite
air castle was tottering to its fall.
Mrs. Barrows ascended the stairs without any
the golden chrysanthemums in the middle of the
breakfast table.
“At least, Bess, he has the courage of his con
enthusiasm on the mission appointed her by her
strong-souled brother. She paused in the hall and
looked out of the front window at the sunny loveli
ness of the winter morning. A sparrow was whirl
ing around the high luxuriance of clustered ferns,
in the brass bound jardinieres on either side of the
marble steps, and a little boy in a blue blouse was
trundling a hoop down the tiled sidewalk, while
a red bird, with sheathed wings, balanced its body
on the silver gray limbs of a sycamore tree on the
other side of the street. She turned away at last
from a contemplation of the window panorama,
witty a, sense of profound regret in her heart. Bess
Barrows had no natural affinity for disagreeable
duties. Even the crumpled rose leaf had been a
phenomena] experience in her shielded existence.
Miss Moore was just taking away Sylvia’s break
fast tray as her cousin entered the sitting room.
Mrs. Barrows was charmingly gowned in a blue
house dress, worn with a golden linked girdle, and
with the bright abundance of her hair and the
topaz blue of her eyes, she looked unusually attrac
tive even to the ghost of a girl who reclined by the
fireside.
“Sylvia, I hope that you are feeling unusually
well this morning,” she said, bravely, as she sat
down opposite her cousin, “because I have the mis
fortune to be the plenipotentiary of Rodney Hill.”
“You are what, Bess?” Sylvia said, with a
gleam in her amber brown eyes, as she straightened
her slender figure to an erect position in the deep
chair and caught convulsively at a crimson loop of
the wide ribbon with which her negligee was tied.
“Well, Reece says that I am to tell you that Mr.
Hill has been writing to you at intervals all dur
ing your illness. His letters have been invariably
returned unopened until this week. My brother
rejoices in the possession of a Puritan conscience,”
she went on with a half hysterical laugh, “and as a
consequence he thinks that you should decide the
matter for yourself, now that you have been placed
on the convalescent list.” And as she uttered the
last word, Mrs. Barrows held up a square, deli
cately tinted envelope for inspection.
“Please do me the kindness,” Sylvia said, a note
of decision in the finely-modulated voice, “to re
turn the letter, as I assure you that I have no desire
to read it.”
“All right, Sylvia, I shall be only too glad and
delighted to do it.”
“And I would be greatly indebted to you,” the
pale girl with the shining eyes in the invalid’s
chair continued, after a pause, “if you would also
return all of his letters and jewels for me. Aunt
Lila doubtless knows where the diamond crescent
is to be found. The pearl necklace he gave me
on my birthday and the diamond ring are in the
drawer of my desk over there. I pulled the ring
off that fatal night, in order to get the glove on
my left hand.”
“Don’t distress yourself with details,” Mrs. Bar
rows said, kindly, “I can find everything, I know.
But had you not better let me write a letter for
you also, and end once and always this epistolary
persecution ?”
“I would appreciate it,” Sylvia said, with a flush
on her transparent cheeks. “Write in your own
name, Bess, and ice your rhetoric with such finality
that Mr. Hill’s name need never be mentioned be
tween us again.”
Mrs. Barrows went over to Sylvia’s handsome
mahogany desk, which stood in one corner, and
sat down thoughtfully. She understood that the
task appointed her was one of extreme difficulty.
Sylvia regarded her awhile in silence, then she
asked gently:
“Do you object to my dictation?”
“Certainly not.”
And the girl who was hardly more than an in
teresting phantom, dictated in a voice that only
now and then held an inflection of color in it:
“Mr. Rodney Hill, Mobile, Ala.: Dear Sir —Miss
Warrenton requests me to advise you of the fact
that she is returning by express today to San Fran
cisco, Cal., all your jewels and letters. As no
explanation can ever adequately explain the occur
rences of the 10th of September last, she insists that
you will discontinue all communications in regard
to the matter, as she has never read them, and
cannot bring herself to do so at any future time.
“Very truly yours,
“Mrs. Leighton Barrows.”
“Well, I hope,” Mrs. Barrows said, as she sealed
the envelope, “that the prince from the Pacific
Slope will have sense enough to believe that this
is what it is—the finale.”
(To be continued.)
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